Las Vegass version of Hurricane Katrina? -

I am curious about something. Almost everyone knows that engineers were writing reports for about 50 years that basically said we built most of New Orleans below sea level, and if we ever get a hurricane that hits the city the place is going to flood. Then Katrina surprised us by doing exactly that.--------------------In California they ve known that sooner or later the San Andreas Fault is going to rupture, and the expectation is that there will be a 30 drop in the El Cajon pass. It will shut down the rail lines, smash interstate 15, cut the power lines, and all the fiber optic cable. Actually unlike Katrina which was based on probability, we know the San Andreas fault MUST rupture, since that is the only way to relieve the tectonic stress building along the fault line.--------------------We know that the repairs could take forever, and cost a significant fraction of a trillion dollars. Without the use of Interstate 15, the other routes from Los Angeles are hopelessly overcrowded, narrow roads that are already so overused that traffic moves at an average of 30 mph. --------------------Knowing that the city will be driven to near collapse, don t you think that they should build an alternative freeway to Los Angeles? It would go from Barstow to Palmdale and replace the tiny Antelope Valley expressway to Santa Clarita and downtown Los Angeles. -----------------There is a slight possibility that both freeways would collapse, but the Antelope Valley portion of the fault slipped in 1857. The best guess is that this portion won t slip for an additional century.--------------I think if the freeway is down for 9 months it will dwarf the current recession in Las Vegas. Can you imagine a Las Vegas where 95% of the drive in traffic from Los Angeles is gone? In addition, many people will be afraid to drive through the pass for years, because there will be television coverage of cars flying over the cliff and smashing into chasms. --------------Will we just say Why didn t anyone prepare for this decades ago?

Have you seen the desert and the I-15? If the freeway were cracked it would be at one point. You grade a detour in the desert around the broken part. Maybe a 3-4 hour job tops. Heck, half the time, the traffic will just go round the break by itself. I ve even been out there off road in a regular car. A semi can do cross country for most of it. 30 feet of vertical displacement, something that is unheard of with a quake, merely means 5-10 Caterpillars and a few earth movers. A week tops before traffic could move on dirt.As well, the San Andreas is right at LA, not way out in the desert. Where it passes under the 15 is a choke point but there are enough ways in and out of LA to get through. I have actually gotten out of the car and stared right down at the San Andreas fault. Stood right next to it. The displacement will not be 30 feet vertical. If you look at the terrain you will see it is a sideways slip there.As well, there is a freeway being built from Barstow to Palmdale. Except it runs to Mojave a few miles north of Palmdale. The 138. I have driven that road, through Kramer Junction several times. The road through there has been there a long time.But I do not know what you are talking about average speed on the 15 averaging 30 MPH. I have drivern from Vegas to LA at times in under over 3 hours. Long stretches at 100. A slow down here and there and an occasional jam as you get into San Bernardino.Besides, Vegas has the 93 to the south to Kingman where you can pick up the 10 into LA. Or north to the get the 80 into the Bay area. And there are roads to the east. To Salt Lake City or east from Kingman to Flagstall and Phoenix.Las Vegas itself is in a disaster free area. No quakes or anything else. And there are plenty of ways to get to and from the place. The I-15 is merely the shortest between LA and Vegas.So really, don t panic. Getting to Vegas from LA after a quake is a pretty low priority. And Vegas would still have all the USA to the east to get its stuff from.

Conjecture about the collapse of anything. Nevada has had all kinds of quakes for generations. But unlike LA most roads are at ground level, not on stilts.

If another freeway were built, the earthquake would destroy it too. I don t see the point.

You have to tough it out.Grew up in NJ and as a kid there was fear of nuclear attack. The entire state and region had missle bases to combat the potential for devistation. People built bomb shelters in Bergen County, New Jersey. Then there was a fear that the nuclear reactors would fail one day and would need a mass evacuation into the west. Never happened, but people prepared. Actually worked on the evacuation and rescue and recovery on the World Trade Center in Sept. 2001. Road were closes and access were shut down. Frickin Wall Street was closed for several days. Things did stop, but the world continued. We all did what we could to return to normalcy. So, I hope nothing adverse occurrs here, but if it does, we have to band together and work it out.